Underdogs

[gunsage 161]

This has been numerous times, surely, but I want to know what games you consider to be amazing that you're pretty sure nobody has ever heard of.  The difficulty here is it has to be a true underdog, which can be tough unless it was something that just plain didn't come out to the U.S.  As this is my topic, I'll start.

Adventures of Hourai High is an amazing, strange, quirky, and hilarious RPG with lots of really cool backend elements.  The battles are fairly straightforward, but you can stumble across multiple people you can recruit and raise their affinity by spending points.  Moreover, you can enroll your party members in extracurricular clubs that they learn skills from (anime, kendo, karate, or math club for example).

 

Some of these clubs have requirements such as meeting a certain level or whatever to even join in the first place, but it's always worth getting the abilities they offer.  The game takes place on an island that's basically one big charter school, but it's as ridiculous as it can possibly get.  In a way, it almost sounds like an anime (I would not be surprised if it was based on one or if one was developed in response to it) and in general it's a really fun, oft overlooked title, probably because it was only recently fully translated by AGTP (probably about a year ago or so).

 

Definitely worth checking out, but I want to know, what games do you know of that are true underdogs and why?

[+ Chaosian 617]

Another indie game, something I was the first person I know to ever hear about and play, an indie adventure horror game called "Lone Survivor".

 

It's best thought of as a 2D homage to Silent Hill, and while the game seems like a pretty strait-forward zombie survival game it's actually really out there. The later half of the game in particular is really odd, like you're playing through a fever-dream, and things get progressively more dark, deep, and obscure. I've beaten the first version of the game about 6 times, and I still couldn't really tell you what the whole thing is about, or explain to you what every element in the story means, or represents.

Perhaps by far and away the best part of the game though is the most in-depth 'moral choice' system I can think of, and none of it is explained to the player. Everything you do, from every time you fire your gun, to how often you talk to your plants, to what pills you take before you go to sleep, to what you eat, to what kind of coffee you drink effects this moral choice system, and in turn, the ending.

 

Somewhat recently, the game's had some Let's Plays from big names like Markiplier, but for a long while there, nobody knew about it, and that's a real shame.

Edited August 27, 2015 by Chaosian

[gunsage 161]

Nobody knew about it, are you sure?  I got it the day it came out.  Never beat it because I have a tendency to hop around between games, but I concur, it's a messed up, fun time.  Here's a game that got a lot of hype, then it suddenly just kinda went away and nobody really talks about it...

Citizens of Earth was the little game that could.  After a failed kickstarter, the team was contacted by Atlus and they published the game for them.  Is it the best game ever?  Well, it's like a modern day Earthbound, but it feels a little...off.  Most people complain about the difficulty and random encounters being unbalanced and I agree with them to a small degree.  The encounter rate is rather high and even though you can tweak the difficulty, you really have to know all of your party members strengths and weaknesses to get through combat, which can take a while depending on what people you have in your party.

 

That said, that sounds exactly like a Persona game, doesn't it?  So why are we more forgiving for Persona, but not this?  At the end of the day, it does have balancing issues, but it really is fun, funny, and takes you to a lot of fun locales.  As far as positives, IT'S LIKE A MODERN DAY EARTHBOUND, COME ON.

[Kayzee 4,032]

I could probably say just about every DOS game in existence at this point, I don't know if very many people still remember the Ultima series at all for example. But I already ranted about that particular series at least, and really they are probably still fondly remembered by at least some people. Also can't forget the Quest for Glory games!

 

I could also gush a lot about particular square games like the SaGa series but I am sure they have there followers too. There are plenty of obscure square games like Live-a-Live and Treasure of the Rudras that really deserve mentioning, but they are still square games and I am sure some people know them.  Radical Dreamers is another that needs mentioning, but since it is a Chrono game (sorta) I am sure a fair bit of you already know it (it might be the translation, but it strikes me as one of the best written games I ever played, though being a text adventure probably has something to do with that). I guess no one knows about Dynami Tracer despite it being square but the game struck me as more weird then good, and I can't understand a word of it. Oh! And I almost forgot Chocobo's Dungeon 2 and Chocobo's Racing! The PS1 Chocobo games were so much better then the newer ones... Also Front Mission: Gun Hazard though I didn't get into the main series.

 

I suppose random adult games that I mostly like because they arouse me don't count or I might talk about Village of Nightmare (no link for you this time, you can thank me later).

 

Hmmm... what really really obscure game can I think of that I really like? I donno I will have to think about it.

Edited August 27, 2015 by KilloZapit

[gunsage 161]

The only Front Mission games I haven't played are 2, Alternate, and Evolved.  From what I gather, I'm not missing much with Evolved and I've loved all the other FM games.  Yeah, Gun Hazard kinda reminded me of Cybernator, but Gun Hazard is WAY better.  My favorite of the series is probably 3 or 5.  4 gets a nod because they were trying a lot of new things, but many battles would take HOURS and still potentially end in failure.  They ramped up the story and made the battles more concise in 5, which was a much needed touch.  3 could've been better, but there was so much extra content with the network system and I liked the way different things ranked up.

 

Quest for Glory is hands down one of the best series ever, with the exception of 3 and 5.  4 is definitely my favorite, but I may be a bit biased as that was the first one I'd played.  The only one mentioned that I haven't tried is Dynami Tracer and I agree with most of the rest except Radical Dreamers.  Really, the only reason I'm not too fond of that one is I'm not a huge fan of visual novels to begin with, so reading whole walls of text and turning it into a choose your own adventure was just kinda ehh for me.  Here's another one...

Metal Saga is an amazing open world RPG that nobody really talks about, presumably because on the surface it doesn't look like much.  Okay, and it suffers from some weird loading issues.  Beyond that, though, it's an amazing game.  The best way to think about it is it's a turn-based RPG that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world...with TANKS...and MECHA-DOGS...and all kinds of weird, crazy enemies.  Seriously, there's an enemy that's a missile launcher wearing fishnets.  I just, I can't even.

 

The game is fun, funny, and because it's open world there's a bunch of stuff to do, most of which is entirely optional.  This was a game I'd picked up for my PS2 on a whim and I couldn't have been happier with it.

[Kayzee 4,032]

I remember there was a Metal Max SNES game that got a unofficial translation a while back that was in the same series that looked kinda neat, but I never played enough of it to judge it.

 

Edit: Oh! I Just remembered a obscure game I really liked... Chaos Seed! It's kinda like a mix between Zelda and Dungeon Keeper... Kinda. Has a translation now too!

Edited August 27, 2015 by KilloZapit